Gravitational wave astrophysics with pulsar timing arrays

by Dr Vikram Ravi (University of Melbourne, Australia)

Friday 17 Feb 2012, 11:30 → 12:30 Asia/Kolkata

DAA Seminar Room (A-269) (Colaba Campus)

Numerous experiments in a variety of countries seek to achieve the first direct detection of gravitational waves. Pulsar timing arrays (PTAs) propose to detect gravitational wave-induced perturbations of the Earth on timescales of months to years, by studying the noise in timing measurements of sets of radio pulsars. The most promising sources of gravitational waves for PTAs are binary super-massive black holes. I will first describe the methodology, potentialities and limitations of the PTA technique. I will then outline my area of research, through which I intend to perform gravitational wave astrophysics using PTA data.